Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

Post by jacurtis » Sun, Aug 22, 2021, 2:43 PM UTC

postalrat wrote: post #211

jcrawfordor wrote: post #128

There's a lot of interesting material in the ATC recording. - Helo pilots felt that it was intentionally staying nearby as it came very close on multiple occasions and did not seem to be trying to evade. They had visual contact most of the time but sometimes had a hard time tracking it against the city lights. - Pilots initially describe it as a quadcopter but become skeptical of that due to the performance. No one e…

If it was burning a fuel wouldn't you also expect it to be easily visible through their thermal camera?

Post by greedo » Sun, Aug 22, 2021, 2:53 PM UTC

postalrat wrote: post #211

jcrawfordor wrote: post #128

There's a lot of interesting material in the ATC recording. - Helo pilots felt that it was intentionally staying nearby as it came very close on multiple occasions and did not seem to be trying to evade. They had visual contact most of the time but sometimes had a hard time tracking it against the city lights. - Pilots initially describe it as a quadcopter but become skeptical of that due to the performance. No one e…

If it was burning a fuel wouldn't you also expect it to be easily visible through their thermal camera?

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Aug 22, 2021, 2:54 PM UTC

015a wrote: post #125

radley wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the drone... proceeded northwest at high speed and climbing, with the helo and another LE helo in trail. The copter began to climb and flew out of the TUS area about 50 miles to the northwest of town into the middle of nowhere desert out by the mine west of KAVQ. It was last seen climbing through 14,000’ and into the undercast, where it disappeared. > the mystery craft was essentially playing with them by repeatedl…

To my memory; these things have been repeatedly popping up in the southern US; Arizona and Texas. Maybe not for under $1k. But under any price? Is it physically possible? Yes. We're not talking about a hobbyist guy in his garage here. We're talking about either US Military accidentally caught in a game of cat and mouse with local law enforcement, or more likely: drug cartels. Both organizations operate heavily in the…

Post by papito » Sun, Aug 22, 2021, 2:57 PM UTC

skinkestek wrote: post #144

prawn wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't underestimate it, but if I wanted to play around with an expensive drone I could afford to lose, it would be during the day when I could see what I was doing or in a more interesting place. Dangerously flying a large/experimental drone near an air force base goes from "lose my $10k drone" to incurring the wrath of serious entities. Take down a chopper and if it's traced back to you, you're in some sort of tro…

> Dangerously flying a large/experimental drone near an air force base goes from "lose my $10k drone" to incurring the wrath of serious entities. Messing with the armed forces or police seemed to be part of growing up as a teenage boy for some of my friends. (I was tempted to write rite of passage here but that would imply that it happened once for each.) Of course they like me wasn't too well of so it was all about…

Post by postalrat » Sun, Aug 22, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

lmilcin wrote: post #188

parsimo2010 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming that the story is true, the thing that rules out a traditional quadcopter is the fact that it was flying for an hour. You can make quads fast or long range/endurance, but AFAIK, nobody is even close to making a quad that can do 100mph for an hour. The battery weight for that kind of flight time would be too heavy for the quad to fly.

I wouldn't say it is impossible. A (relatively) simple solution would be to use something with more dense power source, maybe fuel. RC enthusiast use fueled engines routinely, it isn't something special. There are various types of advanced fueled engines for RC use from traditional 2-4 stroke miniaturized engines to turbofans. They are not very common on small quadcopters because of lack of response. Quadcopters depe…